<p>Noticed a few posts buried in other threads by current Yalies willing to take questions, but there doesn't seem to be one single active thread for it. Here you go. Ask your questions here and I'll try to answer them; I hope that some of the other current students on the board will join me, since I'm sure we've all had experience with different aspects of campus life.</p>
<p>My one request: please post Yale-specific questions only in this thread. If you want comparisons with other schools, please take them to the correct thread (or if such a thread doesn't exist, start one.)</p>
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<p>That being said, here's a quick intro on who I am so you know what kinds of questions I might be able to answer:</p>
<p>Female sophomore chemistry major, involved in orchestras and dance groups. Despite being a science major, though, I take lots of humanities classes :). I also work for student computing, if that's of interest to anyone (... if you're coming to Yale BUY A DELL if you want to get a windows machine! We have really really really good, fast, warranty support on campus. Yes.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Admission Statistics for Applicants to Medical School from Yale
This report is by individual medical school and includes grade point averages, MCAT scores, major, and state of residence. It is available in the UCS resource room only. It is NOT available on line, and copies cannot be made and/or sent out of the office. This information is confidential and may only be accessed in the UCS resource room.
<p>However, if you're really interested in this information you may be able to call UCS and get them to answer specific questions, though I wouldn't guarantee it.</p>
<p>I know the Political Science major is the second largest at Yale, does this mean that the students in the major have difficulties establishing relationships with professors?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do you recommend buying a laptop or a desktop for my dorm room?</p></li>
<li><p>Do students usually bring laptops with them to classes?</p></li>
<li><p>Is Yale fully wireless?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>divanny - I'd rather leave this question to someone who's actually a polisci major, but I think (given my limited experience with the polisci dept) you might find it's difficult to get establish relationships with profs during your first year or two, when you're taking mostly lecture courses, but once you get into smaller seminars (required for the major), that probably changes. can't speak with authority, though, as I haven't taken any polisci seminars specifically. anyone else want to give input on this?</p>
<p>the english adn writing classes - I took a writing-focused class, ENGL 120a, as a freshman and had a lot of fun with it. It was focused on writing nonfiction prose, but not reading literature. I think it really depends on your teacher, though, and I really don't know anything about the upper-level courses, though you should check out the course catalog - there are a couple of really interesting writing-focused ones. be aware though that if you're not an english major, competition for the classes like the beginning writing fiction class is EXTREMELY tough. if by "love to write" you mean you love writing analytical essays about works of literature, though, you should be able to find that in nearly any of the literature-based english classes. I don't know... might want to wait for someone who's taken more english classes than I have for more input on this one :)</p>
<p>wrathofgod:
1) laptop laptop laptop! even if you don't take it to classes, you'll want to take it to the libraries and such. just make sure to get a good cable lock & have it marked with STOP tags (um... secure tracking of office property, i think?) when you get here to deter theft. laptops are extraordinarily handy though. i really really wouldn't recommend a desktop unless you really need the extra computing power you can get in one.</p>
<p>2 - some do, some don't. majority don't. however, the trend has been increasing, so who knows?</p>
<p>3 - not quite, but it's getting there. the libraries are pretty well covered, especially in the large reading rooms, and so are the college courtyards and large common spaces (like cross campus). however, dorm rooms are not yet covered as a general rule (unless you buy a router... however, this may change in the future; they're conducting a pilot program in Swing Space right now to test out a model for supplying wireless throughout a residential building), and certain other spaces aren't either. many of the large lecture halls are covered, but not the smaller classrooms. this page (<a href="http://www.yale.edu/amt/doco/wireless/%5B/url%5D">http://www.yale.edu/amt/doco/wireless/</a>) might be a bit of help, but I don't know how up-to-date it is.</p>
<p>Edit: an addendum to the above - whatever computer you buy, from whatever manufacturer, make sure to get a warranty that will cover you for at least three years, preferrably all four that you're here, and preferably with accidental damage coverage. it really sucks to have your hard drive die on you three months after your warranty coverage runs out, and it also really sucks to have your computer die because your roommate spills soda on it & the manufacturer won't cover it under warranty because it wasn't a "manufacturing defect" that caused the failure. i know it's more expensive to get good warranty coverage, and if you have any luck you won't need it, but... it's one of those things that's sort of a "better safe than sorry" situation...</p>
<p>New Haven is definitely more gritty than, say, somewhere like Stanford (my main point of comparison). However, that doesn't automatically make it a bad place to be. First of all, most Yale students don't venture too far off campus on a regular basis; when they do, it's for community service reasons or to take the train to New York (very easy to reach by train, btw) or something like that. I suppose students who have a car might be a different story. Anyway, if you stick mostly to campus, it's a pretty nice area. I've really come to like the location.</p>
<p>At the same time, though, you should be aware that Yale is in the middle of an urban area, and as such, you do have to be cautious, and you do see some more run-down etc. areas if you venture too far off campus. Again, this is in contrast to someplace like Stanford, which, while in Palo Alto, is still set far enough away from the downtown areas that it's not like you cross the street from the dorms & you're in downtown Palo Alto, and where most of the areas directly around Stanford are pretty nice. Sorry that I keep using Stanford as a comparison - it's just near where I grew up, so Palo Alto is my reference "college town." As a side note about the "grittier" areas of New Haven, though, other schools that are literally in cities have much the same sorts of surroundings - I've noticed some of the same "feel" when wandering around UC Berkeley for example.</p>
<p>Does that help? So no, I don't think new haven is "really that bad" compared to other college towns, especially those where the college is placed smack dab in the middle of an urban area. However, it does have a very different feel than colleges that are a little more secluded. It depends on what sort of place you're looking for... really, though, if you can visit/attend Bulldog days, you'll get a much better feel for what things are like here and decide for yourself whether or not it's what you want.</p>
<p>(and "other informative things"? any specific questions?)</p>
<p>As a potential chem major, can my SATII 800 on Chem help me place up? or will I have to stress out over the upcoming AP Chem exam? I could probably get a 5 if I tried- so in terms of being comfortable with the material in a more advanced general chem course(118a?) I'm fine. Unfortunately, though, since my class hasn't had much lab experience, how will that effect which course I should take?</p>
<p>Also, on another topic, it is my dream to be able to play music at Yale- female trombonist here. I'm a hardworker but no genius, though. Are the Yale University Bands and the Orchestra outrageously selective? Do you know about how people are turned away each year? I'm hoping that there are many ensembles and bands for musicians who aren't extremely advanced. Am I correct? </p>
<p>Some info about econ major. At Yale it is a really flexible major, and thus very suitable for double-majoring. The point is that you can learn as much (or as hard) econ as you want. If you have econ as your second major, for, say, general knowledge or interest or whatever, you can take more applied not so math-intensive classes. They have different levels for all required classes, and the non-math ones are usually offered very often, since much more people take them. The same idea is true both for theory and Econometrics. As for advanced classes, there are tones of seminars and you can always choose whichever fits your interests. I don't know anything about chem:)</p>
<p>Your 800 on chem SAT II can definitely help you place up. I placed into chem 118a with a 790 and breezed through the class. I really liked chem 118a, but I think I needed it more than you will since you're taking chem now (the last time I'd taken it was in honors chem sophomore year), so if you feel confident about your background in general chemistry, you'd be in a good position to take the placement test and place into frosh orgo. Or if you want to do some review, chem 118 is fun too (...unless, like one of my friends, you don't like prof. Johnson, but almost everyone else I know really really liked him) But yeah, with an 800 on the chem sat ii, you're good to go with 118a, and you can place into something higher if you do well on the placement test.</p>
<p><em>NOTE</em> however that I don't know how the chem department places people who score really well on the SAT II but don't get a 5 on the AP exam. Getting a 4 on the AP exam might make them question your placement a bit, but you'd be in good shape to take the placement test & show you're ready for 118 or whatever anyway.</p>
<p>as for music, I think you'll find there's something for everyone, at all skill levels. YPMB, the yale precision marching band, will take pretty much anyone (even those with no musical experience). several of the residential colleges have orchestras (open to students in all colleges) which range from highly selective (saybrook) to not very selective at all (DPop, JE. BCO is somewhere inbetween selective and not selective; that's the group I play with). YSO, the official yale symhony orchestra is ridiculously selective. So I guarantee you that no matter what your skill level, you can find some group to play with (even if it is just YPMB). All of the groups have their quirks, but they're all LOTS of fun... in terms of music, there's really something for everyone.</p>
<p>biz17 - edmYale09 has gotten the important points to most of your questions, but if you want more info on any of the mjust ask. here are a few more thoughts:</p>
<p>chem & economics - definitely possible, though it'd take work. econ requires 12 courses, chem requires 10 to 12 courses plus 4 lab credits beyond the prereqs. there is NO overlap between these majors. so that totals maybe 28 credits, leaving you only 8 (one course per semester) outside the double major to satisfy the 36 credits required for graduation... if you're okay with not taking many classes outside of chem and econ, go for it. otherwise, you might want to consider choosing only one major and then just taking a lot of courses in the second one for fun :-)</p>
<p>plus, i've been told that double majors don't appear on the diploma :P</p>
<p>grad school counseling - haven't gotten to this point, but I'm really happy with my advisor in the chem dep't. if you take the time to talk to your profs and ask for their advice etc., you WILL find the advice you need. it just might not be through the official career services or whatever.</p>
<p>sciences - I've been pretty happy with teh sciences here so far. I've had a bad prof or two, but on the whole, I've really liked my professors and had good experiences interacting with them both inside and out of class. does that help at all? do you have any specific questions about sciences here? that's sort of my area of expertise, so please don't hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>Princeton v. Yale - of course, I'm biased, I'll say Yale. no really, visit both & see which one you like better, especially since you say you like urban areas and diversity. Yale certainly fits that bill, but I've never been to princeton so I can't give you a comparison on that one...</p>
<p>Regarding double majoring in chem and econ, remember that you still have distributional requirements to fulfill. It's totally possible to fulfill the ~12 credit requirement (since chem would be two credits of science, and econ would be two credits of social science) with 36 credits total, but if you do that, all of your "electives" will be to fulfill your distributional requirements.</p>
<p>Can you do a creative writing concentration at Yale? Also, is it possible to take screenwriting courses, even if you don't want to major in film?</p>